Event Industry Fitness Blog

Been a couple of months since I last blogged! Time flies when you are not keeping on top of things!

Blog #6 Theme: Yikes! The Dreaded Cold! UGH!

I actually spent some time out of the country a couple weeks after my last blog post and within a couple days after I returned, I was whammied with a seriously nasty cold that turned into a six week+ stint of bronchitis. Talk about suck!

The thing is, on my trip I ate super healthy and walked miles every day as the weather was great and why rent a car or take public transportation when you have two legs and two feet that can pump you most everywhere?

So – I worked out and ate healthy and was away from the office and working events – so why didI come down with such a nasty cold?

Well, I honestly can’t answer that one – some nasty bugger of a germ latched onto me like a tick and didn’t get washed off.

I eat and live a pretty healthy life (I do have my temptations and vices and my lazy times….but it is overall pretty darn good living). I also am a germaphobe when I travel. I wash my hands any time I need to use the restroom and try not to touch the door handles on the way out.

This is a catering trick in order to keep your hands as clean as possible – I kick the door open to the stall and use a piece of toilet paper to slide the bolt shut. When I’m done, I use a piece of toilet paper or a clean seat cover to flush and open the door on the way out and push the water on (if needed), wash and then wait to turn off water with a paper towel, throw that away and use another towel to dry my hands and use that to open the bathroom door and toss in the nearest trash can. Great way to use any public restroom!

I also use hand sanitizer as much as I can during air travel, try not to touch my face much and shower, wash my hair and wash all my clothes that I wear when I get to my destination or home after flying.

But this heck of a cold-turned-into bronchitis that I caught really took me out and guess what? Yup, it also kicked me totally out of my workout routine. Honestly, I’ve had a hard time getting back on schedule with workouts over the last six weeks. They haven’t returned back into what I was doing prior to my knock-me-off-my-feet-for-way-to-long cold.

In order to keep in shape during this bronchitis (which any hard breathing would send me into a 20 minute coughing fit) I had to really watch what I ate and try to do as much yoga stretching as my sinus pain and bronchioles would allow me to do. I also started back into some short walks – not my usual almost jogging pace either (just getting back to that now!) I ate good old chicken soup and a lot of veggies and cut down on my portions of other food.

(Well, portion control wasn’t a problem the first couple of weeks since I was never hungry – then I had to make sure to eat of the good stuff!)

Today’s Tip: The dreaded Portion Control. Like you haven’t heard that one before! I’ve already said that diet is a four letter word, but I do firmly believe in trying to control the amount of food I eat.

Wait – I did tell you that I snack in my last blog, right?

I do snack – BUT at meal time I eat only until I feel the beginning of fullness in my stomach, then maybe a few more bites and stop. I am the queen of left over meals out! Love having them for lunch the next day (get more bang for your buck!)

I like a snack at least one time during the day – and since I don’t keep anything bad and tempting in my cupboard, the snack is usually quite healthy. I keep it a small portion, so I will spend a couple of minutes and actually fix up a plate, say a couple crackers with cheese and some grapes and/or apple slices. Having that snack laid out on a plate for visual portion control is a lot better than grabbing a bag of something, taking it over to your desk and mindlessly sticking you hand in the bag, food to mouth and back (hey, I’ve done that a few times and was surprised when my hand hit the bottom of the bag). Besides, you are less likely to take time again to fix another snack plate once you are done! Keeping easy-to-eat bagged snacks and treats at your desk is a pretty dangerous thing to do. Just Sahying!

All right – back to chatting about recuperating after being down-and-out sick:

Actually, doing some exercise when you are sick actually can help reduce the duration of your cold. Honest!

But this doesn’t mean get all crazy with yourself. AND if you are sick – DON’T GO TO THE GYM!!!! Why spread your nasties all over every single thing you touch in the gym so someone else can be as miserable as you are now with a cold next week? Walk around your neighborhood, the local park, the beach…do pushups and sit ups in your living room…march in place…you feel me? Stay outta the gym until you are outta the contagious stage. PLEASE!

OH! For all of us in the meetings and events biz – all you huggers out there - scratch the hug and/or hand shake when you are coming down with a cold. Give a wave and say how sorry you are not to hug/handshake that you are feeling a bit under the weather. THANKS!!

Eat healthy, drink lots of water (not soda!) and go for a walk.

Amazing how much better you will feel!

When your body is feeling like it can take more – then do more – and work back up to your regular routine with a week or so.

I’ll see you in the gym when you are all better!

You can take 10 minutes to work out and you can take 10 minutes to pause and eat. Enjoy the small things in life. A few short minutes are all you need…

Now, a couple of my comments
below may get me in a bit of hot water with my catering clients and foodie
friends, but the nice thing about writing a blog is it is my thoughts and
opinions that I’m expressing to the public – so take it or leave it as you will. (Just keep reading… :-) )

First of
all (Disclaimer)
– I am not a certified nutritionist and my answer is not going to be
your eating plan, capiche? This is to answer a direct question from a
blog reader and industry pal.

Here is a
sample of my eating day:

I eat as
much organic and/or local grown produce as possible. I don’t eat fast food or drink soda. I’m not a big fan of fried food. I’m not a big fan of tray passed food or
buffet food either (reference note
above) and I eat before I
attend most association mixers so that I am not tempted to over eat food that
has a lot of I-don’t-know-what-I’m-eating
ingredients in it. My go-to breakfast is
a fruit bowl with plain Greek yogurt and cinnamon and my favorite snack is
either reduced-fat Wheat Thins with gruyere or provolone cheese or organic
peanut butter, a bowl of Kashi cereal or a handful of wasabi pea trail
mix.

Sounds too healthy?
Okay - - I do like to eat lunch
out a day or two a week. Such as: Sushi (love Harney Sushi rolls) or Tender
Greens (favorite salad is the tuna nicoise and I do eat the side piece of buttered and grilled bread!) I also like pizza – Pizza Port’s whole wheat
beer crust Monterey pizza is my favorite as is anything from Bronxs and Isola. I like pasta too – a good Bolognese sauce with
spaghetti works just fine for me and I absolutely am crazy for Bencotto in
Little Italy.

All right….most lunches consist of a big tuna or fresh roasted
chicken salad or sandwich (21 grain bread) or left-overs. But just
sayhing… I do cheat too and savor every second of it!

And I
cook. My husband/business partner and I
like to cook together. We tease each
other – he likes to cook heavy (i.e. sauces and butter with lots of dishes and
a long wait for dinner) and I like to cook light (i.e. fresh and light – but
will still use butter {just less of it} J
with less dishes and a faster time to eating!) So we have fun in the kitchen – and this is a
good thing because getting creative in the kitchen, whether you are a spouse or
partner or not, makes you find out ways to eat healthy and at home.

And I also
like to bake. When my mom and I opened a
coffee house years ago, she and I did all the baking. I’ve always been quite good at it. Cookies, cakes, pies…and I don’t skimp on the
butter and sugar nor use whole wheat pastry flour in lieu of white (though I do
use an organic bleached wheat flour from Whole Foods). I bake when I have company or for family
dinners and special occasions. So
sharing the baked goods means fewer leftover and less temptation the next day.

BUT I
STILL EAT IT!

I do not
believe in boxed anything. I also don’t eat processed foods. I look at labels – things with too many
ingredients scare me (especially when I’ve never seen the ingredient name
before) and avoid things with too much fat or sugar or salt. And I don’t believe in non-fat….

I
did. Because I think reduced fat or low fat is okay – we don’t need all the saturated fat items, but we
don’t need NON-fat either. Non-fat
equates to high sugar. I don’t know if
you’ve noticed, but sugar is why we put on weight. American’s eat a LOT of sugar.

And I DO
DRINK WINE! Now – that is my bane. Wine has sugar and it has alcohol…both not
too high on the “What-you-should-be-consuming”
scale. I don’t drink many bad things – no soda, no
processed/bottled juices, no hard alcohol, no beer (though that is only because I dislike the taste of beer) …. Coffee, water, wine…. My favorite things to
drink. All in moderation (except water –
I drink that all day long!) Coffee in
the a.m., wine in the p.m. I like to
savor that glass of vino – and it is definitely red!

Flavor
should be why you eat or drink something – and just slamming it down and not
enjoying it is a waste (i.e. what sooooo many of us do in the events industry
because we are on the go and on our feet for such long hours). Eat a protein bar if you want to not enjoy
yourself – lots of what you need in that thing – with no flavor, but will tie
you over and keep the catering event tempting foods at bay.

So –
getting the picture? Savor good food and take your time. Pause a moment to eat and try to make better
choices – don’t starve yourself then slam into your mouth whatever gets in your
hand.

On that
note, Isola sounds rather tempting today…..

You can take 10 minutes to work out
and you can take 10 minutes to pause and eat.
Enjoy the small things in life. A
few short minutes is all you need…

In my last
Blog, I talked about a quick and easy workout to try to add to your daily attempt to work out.

For this
Blog I will give some tips on eating choices.

Note the word “choices”…

Motivation Kick in the Butt #1: You are what you
eat.

Motivation Rebuttal #1: But you can still eat!

What am I a saying here, you ask?

In the
fitness and nutrition world, you definitely are what you eat. What you put in your body counts. It really is about calories in and calories
out per day. How much you consume to how
much you burn is a big deciding factor in your weight management.

Yeah – THANKS for saying that,
huh? We live and work in a world where
there is a LOT of high calorie yummy food available for us to stick in our
mouths all day long! Besides, we are busy, right? Many times there just isn’t time to eat healthy!

Temptation
is a nasty thing – it strikes all of us, most particularly when facing
something delicious (made worse by a hungry and empty stomach and tired body).

So – to
continue the answer to the question from an industry acquaintance from my last
Blog: What do I eat?

First, let
me tell you that I am not a skinny-minny.
Not at all. I don’t have a flat
tummy (never have) nor will I deny myself food and drink to have a skinny, flat
stomach that was never part of my genetic makeup. I eat, I drink wine, I snack….sometimes bad
snacks….and I can eat too much at one sitting.
Hey, I’m a normal person that works and that likes to have time to do
what I want to do too – and sometimes you can’t be perfect and eat perfect.

I occasionally
fall into the DESSERT training effect (remember
my term from Blog#2?“Double-Edge Sword Spiral Effect
Result Training”) and
beat myself up - - but then I realize I just have to move beyond it. After
all, “Tomorrow is another day!” (my favorite Scarlet O’hara saying from GWTW). So pick yourself up if you’ve not been “perfect” and try again the next
day.

You see,
the key term here is TRY.

Yeah, so I ate the pecan pie tart
– what of it?

Just don’t
eat another one! It is okay to give into
the temptation – but it is NOT okay to pig out.
It is a proven fact in fitness industry publications (and even recently
articled in some of the mainstream fitness mags such as Health, SELF, etc.) that you shouldgive into temptation and not deny yourself that chocolate chip
cookie. BUT the trick is to savor it and eat just one! (Not the whole
bag). Then you’ve got the senses going –
the smell of this tempting thing, the way it hits your taste buds when you take
a bite, the sensation of the flavor of it …. Enjoy it! Just don’t start
slamming this temptation into your mouth multiple times and getting all crazy
on it.

Okay –
back to the comment of “You are what you
eat!” ….

You are –
no doubt about it. You know it – you
know what you are eating and how it makes you feel and if it adds some flab on
the tummy and tush…. You know it. So don’t lie to yourself about it – just try
to take a step back for a moment and think about it. If you still can’t convince yourself to NOT
eat it – then by all means - - Go for it.

And then TRY to do your “workout” routine – whether that is a walk around the
block or down the office building stairs or to the spinning class at the gym or
the 10 minute a.m. workout - - just make an attempt to balance the “calories in”
to the “calories out”.

The same
applies for missing a work out day. I
didn’t do my morning workout routine today.
I slept in because I obviously needed the sleep and then I took my dog
for a walk at our favorite off-leash dog park for an hour because he needed the
workout more than I did – then I had a morning meeting I needed to get to. BUT I had plans to clean the house and do
some yard work since I was not doing a full day in the office… so I knew I was
moving my body today, just not in the sense of a full-blown “workout”. Yeah – I did have a couple beat-myself-up
thoughts, but, hey! …I had errands
and house cleaning and yard work to do and I was moving. Good enough for today. Tomorrow morning I will resume my a.m.
workout.

So – back to
the question of what do I eat?

In my next
Blog you’ll get a day in my life (well, on what I eat anyway).

I had an
industry acquaintance contact me and ask me about how I workout and what I eat
and to expand upon my comments in regards to people’s bodies “fitting”
them. So, after thanking them for
actually reading my blog, I figured this was a great subject for blog #3.

First for
this blog – my workouts. I try to work out every day. Now, do I do so - - every day??

Nope!

BUT I TRY TO…and this is the first step to adding a
fitness routine to your busy schedule.

In my
brain pretty much each morning is one thought:
Get moving for 10 minutes. Now, I
am a personal trainer and have worked out fairly consistently for the last 20
years, so my 10 minutes of working out is after
I do 5-8 minutes of yoga sun salutations (my go-to warm up).

Note: Sometimes, this yoga routine is
what I only have the effort and energy for in the morning and I will expand it
to 10 minutes.

Then my 10
minutes is something what is called High Intensity
Training in the fitness world.
Explosive movements for 30-45 seconds followed by 20-30 seconds of rest.

Not for
the faint of heart.

And I mean this literally! NOTE:
Before you start any workout routine that is new for you and out of your
comfort zone or if you have not worked out before, I highly suggest you
get a nice check up with your Doc, Okie Dokie?!! Just Sahying….I’m seen a few people get flung
off the treadmill after passing out in my gym personal training career (ummm –
NOT any of my clients, mind you!)

And to be
honest with you – many times this 10 minutes expands to15-25 minutes, depending
on how much time I have and what my internal system is yelling at me in the
morning. I’m also a big fan of the TRX
Workout (http://www.trxtraining.com) a suspension workout created by
former SEALs – but that is for another blog J

HOLD IT! Wait….. You are saying that there is NO WAY
you know how to do this “high intensity” thing - - like really - - what do I
mean?

Simple
Routine for the new at this:

~March in
place (and I mean pump the arms and March!)
30 seconds

~Rest
15-20 seconds

~Jumping
Jacks 20 seconds (take it easy – go slow to start)

~Rest 30
seconds

~Sit ups x
30 seconds (suggest bicycle sit ups as they are effective and easy – can Google
how to or email me at mdteurobar@gmail.com
if you are not sure)

~Rest 20
seconds

Repeat for
10 minutes

Moderate
Routine:

~Jumping
Jacks 20-30 seconds

~Rest
20-30 seconds

~Push ups
20 seconds

~Rest 20
seconds

~Lunge
Kicks – 20-30 seconds (can Google how to do or email me)

~Bicycle
Abs or ball sit ups (if you have an exercise ball) for 30-45 seconds

~Rest 20
seconds

~Squat
jumps 20-30 seconds (can Google how to do or email me)

Repeat 10
minutes

SO…. Did I
use weights? Nope.

Did I use
a gym? Nope!

Did I have
an excuse to not spend 10 minutes
working out? NOPE!

For us
event folks that travel – you can do this in your hotel room before you head
out for the day. It actually is a great
bump start to a long day – gets you energized and motivated to deal with what
comes your way when planning or providing services for an event.

No
excuses. Really!!!

If you try
– just try – to spend 10 minutes a day “working out” – you’d be surprised at
the results.

Totally new to this – walk it out, baby! (And I
mean literally – walk 10 minutes without stopping a day, till you can do it
easily and longer and then try the Simple Routine above!)

The Side
Bar: Quick Eating Tip: Try to cut out just one thing that you know you are eating each day that you should not
be.

Uh-Huh - -
you know what I mean. That cookie you
slip into your hand before it heads out to the buffet station….that piece of
candy from your office mate’s desk jar….that can of soda to pick you up for the
afternoon (try iced tea or a fresh carrot and veggie juice instead).

Preview note: Remember my DESSERT term from my first
fitness blog (the“Double-Edge
Sword Spiral Effect Result Training” effect?) - - well, let me tell
you - I just came from a conference and I didn't work out daily nor did I eat
as healthy as I would normally do. There were some amazing desserts, and
I ate them! Yup - I was tempted and I ate more than one of them. And
guess what? I was not going to allow a couple bad days of eating depress
me and spiral me down to the feelings of guilt that generally are associated
with poor eating and not saying "no"
to the cake. I even took an extra day off after I got back then
started back up on my routine and didn't beat myself up about it. My body
fits me, and I am not a skinny girl and never will be - so I'm not going to
give up eating a cookie (or two) to try to fit a body size that isn't me.

Blog #2 I
just worked a 12+ hour day and you expect me to work out????

Simple answer = Yes!

Complex answer = No! Noton the day you just worked for so many
hours!

We all work, we all have commitments, we all have
spouses/partners/kids/parents/friends/pets that demand our attention when we
are not working.

So when do you get time to work out?

{Yeah – than when do I have time for me? - -More on that in a moment}

Here is one of my little secrets:

Try to work out every single day first thing when you get up in
the morning (or depending on your work schedule - in the evening – but not at
night… {more on that in a future blog})

Yeah – right…I like to sleep as long as I can….THANKS!

Can you give me 10 minutes? Impossibleyou say?

Motivation kick in the butt #1: You are totally lying to
yourself if you don’t have10
minutesto work out a
day.

Motivational rebuttal #1: You don’thaveto do itevery day! But thekeyis totryto every day.

I am going to take a minute to give you some background
information on me: On the personal training - - I’ve been doing this for
a decade+ There has been a lot of changes in the fitness industry and I
follow them on all the insider, in-depth fitness study publications and
websites. (BTW-nota thing you want to read to wake up or
anything! Kinesiology and physiology are pretty scary detailed stuff!)

One study that is bull-dozing the fitness industry is
being a quick, kick-butt workout to jump-start your day.

All right BEFORE we go down this path - - if youdon’twork out much (or at all), you
need to start somewhere and I just scared you, didn’t I?

I will answer that by going back to the“Get out and smell the roses”comment in my first blog. Take a
walk – try to walk as briskly as you can for 15 minutes each day. Take
the stairs. IF you do this as often as you can – you will be amazed in a
month where you will be going.

So, the workout I’m going to start talking about in my next blog
begins when you feel strong enough to devote the 10 minutes for the fast and
furious workout.

And back to "Is
there time for me?" Yes. There is always time for you -
the key is making your workout time part of that "Me" time.

Heard on event site: “So, you actually need power?”Saidto the espresso bar company and
the photo booth vendor. {Umm- Sorry today we forgot to bring our gerbils and their
spinning wheel}

My goal is to have
a fun, short blog with meeting, catering and event industry stay-fit tips (and
fun from event site quotes and quips) but first there has to be the
introduction to why I would want to write this:

We have one body that we are born with to take care of
and preserve over our lifetime. But wait,
hold on, then there is the meeting, catering and events industry. Whoa!! Back up…we not only need major clones of ourselves to make our
bosses and clients happy - - but saying “take
care of our body and health” in this demanding work environment with very
(and I mean very) long work days, ridiculous
schedules, backbreaking work and even more demanding clients (and bosses)… Did I mention temptation? Yup.
Lots of that! All the awesome
events and stunning décor set off by beautiful (and delicious) catering food
and tempting cocktails, wine and beer…and…and…and…Hmmm…. mocha gelato dipped in
pistachio flakes served in a mini cone with a side of vanilla soaked pound cake with chocolate shavings and hot
rum milk? The devil sitting on your left
shoulder generally wins. Yeah – absolutely NO temptation there! (Okay, for you non-sweet weirdoes, prime rib sliders
dipped in au jus topped with grilled sweet onions with a side of Texas-style
BBQ sauce and Southern coleslaw OR you no-meat eaters, curried tofu with rice
noodles and sautéed mixed veges topped with five-spice sauce served in
mini-Asian take-out boxes with chop sticks?)
Nope. Not tempted at all. Not after getting up at 4 a.m. to be on event
site at 5:30 a.m. to make sure registration/vendor set up/AV/lighting/booths/catering/etc.
is ready for the client arrival at 8:30 a.m.
This is just the start of the day that may possibly end at 8:30 p.m.
(more than likely around Midnight). I’m
not hungry – not at all. Or thirsty for
that matter – I was good and brought my protein bar and 16 ounce bottle of
water with me for the day because it fit in my big purse. How far did that get me? I’m not telling! I didn’t notice (or sample) any of the food
and beverage that was displayed and offered.
Promise!

We see all the beautiful and fit people in magazines, in
movies and on TV and we try our best to look like them. We tear out the magazine pages or use our
smart phone or tablet app and try to incorporate the workouts/diets/reduced
calorie dessert recipes/juicing fasts/flat ab day meal plan….into our daily
regime.

I think I mentioned above that we only have one body? Yes,
true – but we only have one mind, one
psyche, too. If we try to look like
something we are not – then when we don’t
succeed, that screws up our mind – because
we are supposed to look like that woman/man on the cover of that popular
fitness magazine…uh…Right?!?!?!

Here we go – start of what I call the “Double-Edge Sword Spiral Effect Result
Training” (DESSERT for short) or you
can also call it a self-defeating prophesy…up to you. Let me tell you a little secret…you are YOU
and YOUR body belongs to YOU and you may not have a body type that can fit in
that size 2 dress or for you guys, the size 30 waist pants – NO MATTER HEATHLY
YOU EAT, HOW LITTLE YOU EAT, HOW RESTRICTIVE YOU EAT, HOW MUCH YOU EXERCISE… Your body will fit YOU.

We’ve all done it.
Lose weight and get fit with diet and exercise. Got that flat tummy and hip bones or six-pack
gently showing. How long did that
last? (If it did last – my kudos to you
and you can get off my blog … just teasing, sort
of.) We are real people, with real
jobs, real spouses or partners, with real kids, real parents, real families and
real worries.

Note before I go further: Let me tell
you that I definitely think that you
should eat heathy, organic or locally grown and sustainable and with some restrictions. You should also exercise daily, if possible,
or at least 3-5 times a week.

Second note before I go further: In regards to exercise:
I don’t mean an hour of plugging along on the treadmill or boring workout class
or video – I mean even simply getting out and walking and getting fresh air. If you want to do more – then more power to
you. But get out of your desk chair and
get outside for a walk for 20 -30 minutes if that is all you are able to do,
and try to do it every day. Just saying - Go smell the roses.

Okay. Climb off my soapbox - - this is anevent industry
blog. We all just don’t have time for that, right?

WRONG!!!!

Time is a thief, for sure. I have seen almost 46 years in this body and
I hardly feel older than I was in my 20’s (ummm- would have to have a separate
blog to delve into that statement) BUT I am a firm believer that you can work
hard, have fun, eat bad (sometimes), drink alcohol (to moderation), have a
belly and that dreaded “muffin-top” and
even moobs and still be “Healthy”.

Impossible you say?
I say NOT! And if you continue to
read my blog I am going to give you tips each week on having the body that was
meant for you and finding time in this busy world of the meetings and events
industry!